Animating an Analog Clock

Question

Animating an Analog Clock

Hi There,

I'll preface this by saying I'm still a beginner at Motion.
I'm working on a project where I need to create an analog clock that fills with colour over time.

To explain deeper...

Think of a white clock and as the hand rotates around the clock, it fills in with green behind it. It's a sort of wipe motion but filling in with green.

I've tried to keyframe it out but I'm not having much luck with that. Plus, there's got to be a behaviour or combination of behaviours that makes this simple.

Any ideas?

MacBook Pro

Posted on Sep 16, 2009 9:13 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 16, 2009 9:29 AM in response to Robots3Humans0

UPDATE:

I am using the Record button and moving each point around. Then I plan to mask with a circle over top to get rid of any ugly movements.

I'm still wondering if there is a behaviour or behaviour combination for this.

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Answer 2

Nick Holmes

Level 7

30,018 points

Sep 16, 2009 9:34 AM in response to Robots3Humans0

Is this real clock that you filmed or something created in a graphics application?

If it is a graphic: make sure it is centered on the document -Use the Align command in Photoshop for example. Save a version in white and one in green. Bring into Final Cut Pro and use the *Clock Wipe* transition (yes, it really is called that) between the two.

You can export that as a stand alone file and then alter it's perspective if needed, to put it on a wall or whatever.

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Answer 3

Sep 16, 2009 9:44 AM in response to Nick Holmes

It'd be a vector graphic.

So just photoshop up the two different images then use the wipe animation? Would the be the easiest and cleanest way of doing it?

Then can I bring it back into Motion and throw a mask over the video to add the vector hands on the clock?

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Answer 4

Nick Holmes

Level 7

30,018 points

Sep 16, 2009 11:44 AM in response to Robots3Humans0

So just photoshop up the two different images...

Well, the starting image should be the white clock face then you just make a second copy where the face is colored in green and wipe between them

The wipe is built into FCP and behaves exactly as its name would imply.

You could even add the hands in FCP too, after all it's just a simple rotation move. Dead easy once you have the timing for the white to green transition.

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Answer 5

Sep 16, 2009 12:31 PM in response to Nick Holmes

Thanks!

While you were responding to this I've been working away and pretty much have it all keyframed out in motion. I like that it's scaleable without too much effort. But I'm going to try the wipe anyway to see how it looks.

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Answer 6

Sep 19, 2009 4:52 PM in response to Robots3Humans0

Sorry, just found this thread. Keyframes will work — as you've found. A green circle, covered by a mask, mask points keyframed to reveal the clock face over time works well. Animate the clock hand first (and put it on top) to give you something to line up against. Good if you need the effect scalable in Motion — for a complex countdown, for example.

But yes, a clock wipe in FCP will solve most problems for most people. 🙂

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